Australian rooftop solar capacity hits 20 GW

Australia’s rooftop solar capacity will overtake coal-fired capacity to become the country’s largest power generator in April, when a New South Wales coal plant is set to shut down, says solar consultancy SunWiz.

Image: Western Power

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From pv magazine Australia

Rooftop solar will soon become Australia’s largest power generation source, overtaking coal from April, when the Liddell coal power station is scheduled to retire. The installed capacity of rooftop solar in Australia just hit the 20 GW mark, with over 3.4 million solar power systems installed on Australian households and businesses, according to analysis of the Clean Energy Regulator’s REC Registry.

“When the Liddell coal fired power station closes in April 2023, rooftop solar will have a greater capacity than the remaining coal fired power stations operating across the country,” said Warwick Johnston, managing director of SunWiz.

Australia currently leads the world in solar uptake, with more than 1.2 kW of solar power per person.

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“Australian solar power systems are more affordable than in any other country, so it’s understandable that we lead the world in per-capita uptake of solar,” said Johnston.

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The next issue of pv magazine, due out on March 9, will focus on the solar manufacturing technology enabling the new era of market expansion and high efficiency modules, including interdigitated back contact (IBC) and perovskite tandem solar cells. The magazine charts the latest technical and investment decisions in the high efficiency solar manufacturing segment and the materials and R&D underpinning them. Reports come in from France, Japan, India, Indonesia, Israel, England, the US, and China and we also examine the troubles of the solar-powered car pioneers.

There are more than 8,000 accredited solar installers in Australia, said Sunwiz. In addition to rooftop solar systems, there are more than 11 GW of larger industrial solar power systems and grid-scale solar farms, it added.

  • Queensland hosts more than 5.2 GW of rooftop solar power, and will soon hit 1,000,000 installations
  • New South Wales is the market that is currently installing the greatest amount of rooftop solar power, at nearly 100 MW per month
  • South Australia leads in per-household uptake, with 45% of dwellings hosting solar power systems
  • The Australian Capital Territory was the highest growth market in the nation in 2022

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